{"id":6459,"date":"2026-10-01T13:42:25","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T13:42:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/livenation254.com\/?p=6459"},"modified":"2026-10-01T14:29:25","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T14:29:25","slug":"suqoon-calls-for-urgent-action-on-older-persons-rights-as-kenya-marks-international-day-of-older-persons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/livenation254.com\/?p=6459","title":{"rendered":"Suqoon Calls for Urgent Action on Older Persons\u2019 Rights as Kenya Marks International Day of Older Persons"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-style: normal;\"><strong>PARTNERSHIPS MUST GO BEYOND PILOTS TO BUILD SUSTAINABLE SYSTEMS FOR OLDER PERSONS<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<pre><span style=\"font-style: normal;\"><strong>By Jeff Kizzilah Digital Editor\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/pre>\n<p><span style=\"font-style: normal;\"><strong>Partnerships supporting older persons in Kenya must move beyond short-term pilot projects and develop into sustainable systems built on trust, shared accountability and stronger collaboration, Suqoon has said.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/livenation254.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG-20261001-WA07771.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-6465\" src=\"https:\/\/livenation254.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG-20261001-WA07771-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/livenation254.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG-20261001-WA07771-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/livenation254.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG-20261001-WA07771-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/livenation254.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG-20261001-WA07771.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-style: normal;\"><strong>Speaking during a panel on \u201cHarnessing Partnerships and Social Capital for Dignified Ageing and Older Persons&#8217; Programming,\u201d Suqoon emphasised that effective partnerships should bring together organisations and institutions with different strengths, including mandates, resources, legitimacy and reach.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-style: normal;\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/livenation254.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/HTidfLHWkAA1dbu.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-6461\" src=\"https:\/\/livenation254.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/HTidfLHWkAA1dbu-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/livenation254.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/HTidfLHWkAA1dbu-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/livenation254.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/HTidfLHWkAA1dbu-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/livenation254.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/HTidfLHWkAA1dbu-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/livenation254.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/HTidfLHWkAA1dbu-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/livenation254.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/HTidfLHWkAA1dbu.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-style: normal;\"><strong>The organisation said Older Persons Associations (OPAs) should be recognised as strategic partners because of their legitimacy and close connection with older people, while government ministries should be viewed not only as regulators but also as partners with the mandate and budget authority to scale successful local initiatives into national programmes.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-style: normal;\"><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-style: normal;\"><strong>The statement also highlighted the need to invest deliberately in the capacity of older persons&#8217; organisations, particularly in governance, reporting and organisational systems. It noted that withholding significant funding until organisations demonstrate capacity can create a cycle in which capacity never develops.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-style: normal;\"><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-style: normal;\"><strong>Suqoon said trust must work both ways, with development partners investing in organisational capacity while organisations maintain high standards of accountability, ethics and integrity.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-style: normal;\"><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-style: normal;\"><strong>The organisation also pointed to the role of social capital \u2014 networks, trust and community relationships \u2014 in delivering everyday support to older persons. Examples include family members accompanying relatives to health facilities, community health promoters supporting older people, chamas assisting vulnerable households and faith-based groups identifying people who may need help.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-style: normal;\"><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-style: normal;\"><strong>The statement said the next step should be creating a \u201cpartnership architecture that holds\u201d, with clear mandates, shared accountability and deliberate recognition of government and Older Persons Associations as strategic partners.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-style: normal;\"><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-style: normal;\"><strong>Suqoon said stronger connections between organisations can help transform individual initiatives into a coordinated system capable of delivering more sustainable support for Kenya&#8217;s ageing population.<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>PARTNERSHIPS MUST GO BEYOND PILOTS TO BUILD SUSTAINABLE SYSTEMS FOR OLDER PERSONS By Jeff Kizzilah Digital Editor\u00a0 Partnerships supporting older persons in Kenya must move&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6465,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-updates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/livenation254.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/livenation254.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/livenation254.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livenation254.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livenation254.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6459"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/livenation254.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6466,"href":"https:\/\/livenation254.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6459\/revisions\/6466"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livenation254.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/livenation254.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livenation254.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livenation254.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}